Hey CommitPool family, we’re excited to share our latest bi-weekly update with you.
KERNEL - Thank you!
Last week KERNEL came to an end marked by a fireside chat with the KERNEL crew and Vitalik. KERNEL has been an amazing experience that brought together the CommitPool team and helped us to get started at a rapid pace while facilitating interaction with a wonderfully rich community of builders, including a number of super helpful domain and product experts.
We would like to express our gratitude to the Gitcoin team, the mentors, the keynote speakers, workshop-givers, and other KERNEL fellows, for all the time, attention, and insights shared. The last 8 weeks have been an amazing way to kickstart CommitPool and we can’t wait to see how the KERNEL community grows!
App development
Following our demo during the KERNEL Midway Expo Week, we’ve continued to build out our MVP application. We’ve settled on using the Expo framework, which is helping us iterate rapidly on our iOS &Android (React Native) and web (React) applications. The ability to focus on product development and testing on multiple platforms without the burden of installation has boosted our progress significantly.
In particular, we’ve been able to rapidly incorporate changes based on our ongoing UX and user testing. These interviews have also informed our thinking for future avenues and features.
Key Challenges
Additionally, we’ve also been working on addressing two of the key challenges to CommitPool’s success: our oracle trilemma and the high transaction cost environment.
Oracle Trilemma
CommitPool will be optimally successful if we can find a way to:
Remove the need for the protocol to trust that user’s won’t cheat,
Remove the need for users to trust that the protocol won’t abuse its power over them, and
Keep user data private
The challenge we face is that these three goals currently form a trilemma, where solving two of them leaves the third unaddressed. We’ve recently made some good progress in this area, and are meeting with ChainLink this week to explore some additional ideas.
Transaction Costs
Since 300+ gwei gas prices are obviously untenable for CommitPool, we are exploring layer 2 and side-chain options. In particular, with its combination of transaction throughput, low costs, and integration with ChainLink, Matic Network looks like a promising option. We’ve begun conversations with Matic’s team to explore how CommitPool might work there.
Lastly, we’re also beginning to explore options for how to govern CommitPool in the short term with an eye towards a potentially community-governed future. Much more to come here, so stay tuned!
Cheers,
Ken and the CommitPool team